Should I Buy This?

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herein lies a thread where we post about things we want and the board can talk us out of/convince us to purchase it.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Saturday, 5 November 2005 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

i'll start: Traynor TRM40 Reverb Mate 40 Combo
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/search/detail/base_pid/480968/

i need a new practice amp, something that could backup as a real amp should things take a turn for the unexpected.

ive been doing some research on this one and it seems that everyone really like it, especially considering its price. many good things are said about the reverb and chorus. distortion blows on it, but thats not so much a concern for me. i can always get pedals for that.

i dont know much about traynor amps and i thought they stopped making them a long time ago, so feel free to throw out your opinions here.

for 150$, it cant be that bad of a deal, right?

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Saturday, 5 November 2005 21:08 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not a huge fan of dual 8" stereo amps, but that's just me. IIRC, Traynor is now a division of Yorkville, or vice versa, so it should be well built.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Sunday, 6 November 2005 01:29 (nineteen years ago)

well, i believe the purpose of the dual 8"s is to get even, clean sounds out of it when cranking it. right? [its late, i could be wrong] of course, if you're going to turn an amp like this all the way up, it makes sense to get something larger...

but thanks for your thoughts! i appreciate the manufacturing background info.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 6 November 2005 07:48 (nineteen years ago)

It makes fine sense to turn a small amp all the way up too. Just depends what you want to use it for...

The number of speakers has little to do with whether or not there is a lot of clean headroom in the circuit.

― martin m. (mushrush), Sunday, 6 November 2005 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

should i buy a deluxe memory man?

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Sunday, 6 November 2005 23:37 (nineteen years ago)

should i buy a roland juno 60? and do they have midi in/out?

― safesafeSAfe (eman), Monday, 7 November 2005 00:00 (nineteen years ago)

yes, buy a deluxe memory man. it's delightful :)

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 7 November 2005 03:03 (nineteen years ago)

SOLD

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Monday, 7 November 2005 04:45 (nineteen years ago)

esoj, you didn't let me ask what you were wanting in a delay... There are so many options!

Not that the Deluxe Memory Man is something I'd recommend against or anything. :)

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 7 November 2005 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

i haven't bought it yet.. tell me more

what would be awesome would be an entire lexicon pcm42 in a pedal

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Monday, 7 November 2005 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.spheremusic.com/Bargaindtl.asp?Item=4581

http://www.spheremusic.com/userimages/Img4581.jpg

Up to 321 uk pounds, auction ends on Sunday.

It would work very well with my Wiard modular.

Plus, it's a genuine Buchla module.

Hmm.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 15:59 (nineteen years ago)

Should I buy one of these?

http://glitterdirect.com/catalog/images/bajo.jpg

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

no, you will begin hatin life if you do.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

And why is that?

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 16:56 (nineteen years ago)

oh just generally because it's a 12 string ;)

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 02:07 (nineteen years ago)

should i buy a roland juno 60? and do they have midi in/out?

-- safesafeSAfe (...), November 6th, 2005 7:00 PM. (eman) (link)

hello me it's me again. no it has no midi, so don't buy it.

― amon (eman), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 06:10 (nineteen years ago)

k i won't thx lol :0)

― amon (eman), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 06:10 (nineteen years ago)

hi dere. would an alesis ion make a good "starter" synth or is it overkill for a n00b? (not really interested in soft synths.)

― pretentiosexual rights activist (haitch), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 09:55 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I don't think you can go too far wrong with an Ion.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 10:20 (nineteen years ago)

http://line6.com/tonecore/verbzilla.html

shoudl i get it?

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

I am not a big fan of the Line 6 stuff in general, though the original Delay Modeller pedal (and the rackmount version) is quite nice. I haven't heard any of the newer line of stomp boxes though. Since it's current I say buy it at a local store, try it out and return it if you don't like it. That's always the best option if something isn't vintage or only available through ebay with no return policy.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 18:22 (nineteen years ago)

The Buchla dual mixer is still sitting at 321 pounds, argh.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

yeah. the tonecore trem was pretty sweet. I've got no issue at all with digital reverb either, as long as it doesnt fuck with the tone too badly. the samples on the website seem fine too.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

maria - i didn't even know you played!

alright so the only cheap amp i would recommend is this:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_id/133542

short short short on options - waaay big on tone. for one, it's a tube amp. for two- it's a class a tube amp. it's supposed to sound amazing at practice/recording volumes and you could always mic it up live. it's getting really good reviews from like, total amp snobs. it might just be... the shit.

― b mulvey, Thursday, 10 November 2005 10:31 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, that epi should crank at low enough volume to be usable.

i wonder if it's got a speaker out...probably the worst thing about it (i'm guessing) is the speaker, and at 8" it wouldnt be terribly great for guitar anyway. it probably sings through a 12".

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 10 November 2005 13:42 (nineteen years ago)

I love how the customer review says "it plays much louder than the 5W it is advertised as." Do any of these people actually know how loud 5W RMS actually is? My guess is that it's exactly as loud as the 5W at which it is advertised.

Is there a reason everybody here seems to be mostly interested in buying new? There are a lot of great amps to be had on ebay and at places that sell used equipment. I'm not a vintage snob or anything, and there are plenty of new amps that are great, but if money is a concern, looking for a used amp may give you more options than looking for the one new tube amp that sells for $120. I'd bet that amp sounds great. I'd also bet that the build quality is shit to keep it at that price point. (It's made in China.)

I've got a bunch of old small-to-medium (tube) amps from the 60s and 70s. The average cost to me used is probably around $200. If you take out the few Fenders and other "more collectible" amps, the average cost per amp is probably more like $150. Look at old Gibsons... The Skylark is still affordable and sounds like a Champ with a little less midrange honk. Danelectro DM10s go for about $150-$200 depending on condition, and they are some of the greatest sounding recording amps I've ever used, especially for slightly crunchy dirt.

I know it's easy for me to say to trust some unknown person selling a 30 year old amp because I buy most of mine broken and then repair them, but I do think it's a valid option, and (for ebay) you can avoid a lot of potential problems if you just do your homework and know what questions to ask a seller.

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 10 November 2005 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

Another thing to note with a low wattage amp is clean headroom, which I know maria has alluded to in her earlier posts. Most really low wattage amps start to overdrive pretty early, so they can't get very loud at all when they're clean. This makes them great for recording if you want to record overdriven sounds, but it kinda sucks if you want to record clean.

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 10 November 2005 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

no way, i totally advocate buying used everything. guitars, pedals, amps...

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 10 November 2005 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

i think i should have bought a holiest grail rather than the holier grail :-/

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 10 November 2005 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

I am happy with my Holy Grail.

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 10 November 2005 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

i love the spring sound, it's what i wanted, but i think i was under the impression that there was more control over reverb length and wet/dry mix. the boss pedal has that, but doesn't sound anywhere near as nice. doh!

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 10 November 2005 23:14 (nineteen years ago)

IMHO, the cost differential between the holier and holiest grail isn't justified by the usable difference between the two, unless you are rolling around in piles of money. If this is the case, please contact me and I'll order one and sell it to you...

(this would be where I would put a smiley-face emoticon if I didn't hate the things so fucking much.)

― John Justen (johnjusten), Friday, 11 November 2005 04:15 (nineteen years ago)

really? i just wish i could control the level of reverb signal without reducing the level of dry signal. i suppose this is theoretically possible if i route the clean and reverbed signals separately but that's just more of a drag..

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 11 November 2005 04:28 (nineteen years ago)

Are you running it in front of your amp, or in the effects loop? If you have an adjustable effect loop signal, that might be your answer...

In general I like the Grail effects in the effects loops, and it's a better place for them in the signal chain generally. If you don't have an effects loop with a send volume, I think I can work out another option for you, but I'd need to know what kind of amp you have.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Friday, 11 November 2005 04:35 (nineteen years ago)

"In general I like the Grail effects in the effects loops"

I've gone PLURAL CRAZY! Please ignore, if you could be so kind.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Friday, 11 November 2005 04:37 (nineteen years ago)

ac30 top boost, late 90s reish, no fx loop :(

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 11 November 2005 05:05 (nineteen years ago)

I like the spring sound a lot too. In fact the only reason I have the Holy Grail is so I can have spring verb on my amps that don't already have it.

You could always split your signal and use both inputs on the AC30. Only put the Grail on one side and then you'll always have dry signal.

― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 11 November 2005 05:11 (nineteen years ago)

that would be a good idea but i've cross-patched the channels :-/ i'm not making this easy for myself am i?

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 11 November 2005 05:31 (nineteen years ago)

actually now that i think about it i can probably still do that.. will try!

― john p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 11 November 2005 05:32 (nineteen years ago)

Korg MS20?

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 11 November 2005 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

How much?

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 11 November 2005 16:56 (nineteen years ago)

+/- a grand or so

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 11 November 2005 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

it's steep but WHAT a synth....

― b mulvey, Friday, 11 November 2005 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

Variax 300. I have as many quality old-fashioned guitars as I need.

― George the Animal Steele, Saturday, 12 November 2005 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

Beat out on the buchla module. Oh well.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 12 November 2005 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

It's just a mixer after all. Hold out for a touch keyboard or something.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Sunday, 13 November 2005 06:17 (nineteen years ago)

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